Saturday, 8 December 2007

Neruda's Selected Poems

Pablo Neruda (1904 -1973) won the 1971 Nobel Prize for Poetry. His 'Selected Poems' from Penguin Classics, originally published in 1970 by Cape, contains excellent English translations.P-i-R's pick from this Chilean poet's bristling bag includes no lemons. Highly recommended are:-

Death Alone, Barcarole, Walking Around, Ode with a Lament, There's No Forgetting (Sonata) - from Residencea en la terra (1935),I'm Explaining a Few Things, The Way Spain Was, Furies and Sufferings - from Tercera Residencia (1947),They Come for the Islands (1493) - from Canto general (1950),Religion in the East - from Memorial de Isla Negra (1964)

An extract from the 'They Come for the Islands' -

The children of day saw their smiles smashed . . .

and when time danced around again

. . .

Nothing was left but bones rigidly fastened in the form of a cross to the greater glory of God and of men